education - ethnic differences in education - cultural deprivation

Question 1

language

Answer 1

bereiter and engelmann claimed that the languages if poorer black american families was ungrammatical and disjointed - lack of linguistic skills may be a major barrier to educational progress
•some claim that children who do not speak english at home may be held back educationally. but, official statistics show children whose first language is not english perform slightly better than those who speak english as a first language.
- demie and mclean found that language barriers were less important than school factors such as institutional racism

Question 2

family structure and parental support

Answer 2

•the lack of a male role model - some african caribbean boys may be encouraged to turn to an anti educational ‘gang culture’. sewell argues that lack of fatherly nurturing leads to some black boys underachieving - they have no positive male role model
HOWEVER - gillborn argues that it is institutional racism that produces failure for many black boys - not peer pressure or absent fathers
•asian families - sewell argues that chinese and indian pupils benefit from supportive families with an ‘asain work ethic’. he contrasts this with black lone familes

Question 3

white working class pupils

Answer 3

lupton - studied 4 working class schools and found that in white working class schools teachers reported poorer levels of behaviour and discipline. which they linked to lower levels of parental support and the negative attitudes of white working class parents to education

Question 4

criticisms of cultural deprivation theory

Answer 4

•critical race theorists - instead they believe that the education system is institutionally racist: racism is built into the way that schools operate to produce underachievement for minority ethnic group students
•cultural deprivation theory ignores the impact of material factors such as poverty